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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Warsworn by Elizabeth Vaughan

Lara is the Warprize

A powerful healer, she has sworn an oath of loyalty to Keir the Warlord, and his people. Now the Warlord and his chosen mate face enemies within the tribe and danger lurks on every hand as they journey toward Keir's homeland.

When they reach a village marked with the warnings of the plague, Keir forbids Lara to heal the sick, commanding that she not risk her own life. But both Lara and Kier are strong of will and neither will bend easily, even for love; and when Lara disobeys, she pays the price: both she and Kier are plague-struck... and so is their entire encampment.

In the midst of the dying, Iften, a rival warrior, gathers his followers and challenges Keir for the right to rule their tribe. If Keir, weakened by the sickness, loses -- he dies.

And so does Lara.

To save her love, her life, and her adopted people, Lara must find a cure for the plague -- and fully embrace her sworn role as Warprize to her Warlord.

I tend not to move directly from one book in a series to the next, but I was sufficiently intrigued when I finished Warprize that I did pick up Warsworn the next day to keep reading Kier and Lara's story. Please note that there may be SPOILERS for Warprize in this review!

Having come up with a way to still be with Kier without jeopardising her country, Kier and Lara begin to travel back to his country, where she must be accepted by the elders as the Warprize. The journey itself is yet more of a learning curve for Lara as she begins to understand the rules that dictate the life of the Firelanders - a people that she had long thought uncivilized. It turns out that although their ways are much different from her own, there are very distinct rules to protect individuals privacy and as to how challenges to leadership can be made.

The book opens with Lara suffering from sore feet after the events where she basically gave herself up to Kier as the Warprize. Whilst they are travelling through her land on the way to Keir's homeland, he demands as his right the homage of the towns and people within Xy, so when they get to a town and the necessary homage is not forthcoming, Kier interprets it as an act of disobedience. Ready to declare war, Lara puts a stop to it when she realises that by shooting at Keir's warriors the town was not declaring war but rather trying to warn the people off as they have contracted a very virulent form of plague in their town.

As a healer, Lara knows that it is her role to go and provide whatever assistance she can, despite the risk that she puts herself and those that accompany her. When, despite all the precautions she takes, she catches the plague, she believes that her life is over, but Kier gives every resource he can to trying to save her, even though they still remain far away from the main camp to try and prevent the spread of the disease. All their precautions were in vain though, as the main camp does become infected, and soon, instead of dying honourable deaths in battle, the warriors are dropping from the disease, including some of the people who they value highly within their inner circle. Many within the camp take this as a sign from the gods that there is something amiss and soon Kier is not only fighting for his people, to try and protect as many as they can, but he is also is being challenged in his position as Warlord.

Once again, this was an excellent read. In fact, I rated it as slightly better than Warprize. I have had both of these books on my bookshelves for months, and it is definitely a case of me wondering what the heck I was waiting for now that I have read them! I have now ordered the next book in the series. Hopefully I will get to it soon and not leave it languishing on the shelves as I did for the first two!

I'm also a big fan of this trilogy, Marg. It was so refreshing! When I finished Warlord, I still wanted to know more about Lara and Keir and their people. Can't wait for Vaughan's next book, Dagger-Star.:)

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About Me

Once upon a time I was all about books but these days not so much. Now I will be more likely to be cooking. My adventures through time and place used to be all without leaving the pages of my book.. Now real life is an adventure.

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